Blink (and Miss)
by Killaurey
Summary: Denzel-fic. They call it Geostigma, but the children don't care, they just know that if you've caught it, then you're dead, even when you're still moving.


**Title:** Blink (and Miss)  
 **Words:** 1488  
 **Rating/Type:** T  
 **Summary:** They call it Geostigma, but the children don't care, they just know that if you've caught it, then you're dead, even when you're still moving.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own anything FFVII related.  
 **Notes:** This fic was written for the **2015 Spook Me Ficathon** with the prompt 'ghost'.

* * *

It starts as a rumour.

It starts as something whispered to each other behind cupped hands and never mentioned at all during nighttime. It starts as something the children notice first.

Edge is a city dying. They call it Geostigma, but the children don't care, they just know that if you've caught it, then you're dead, even when you're still moving.

Oh, the adults notice the Geostigma; they're not _that_ oblivious, but the tales of waking up to find mako-blue, mako-green eyes staring down at them… that belongs to the children only.

Denzel hears the rumours and does not believe them.

There is no such thing as ghosts. He has no time for them, not after the deaths of his family, and then the death of Ruvie, who'd been kind enough to take him in, not after the struggle life has become to survive.

Not after when Gaskin dies, coughing up black gunk that had once been his insides.

Not after one by one the other kids either die or leave and then it is just him and Rick until he's stupid, so stupid, and Rick leaves too.

Denzel doesn't believe in ghosts.

But for a snapshot of time, between picking up the phone-and what sort of idiot leaves their phone out by itself in the middle of the slums anyway?-and the first black ooze of Geostigma dripping down his forehead, he sees mako eyes, a sharp face, and a wealth of silver hair.

As he collapses, blond hair replaces the silver, but the colour of the eyes stays the same.

He wakes up to find that his living situation has changed again-but for the better, which is unusual and discomfiting. He meets Tifa, who has the kindest eyes he's ever seen, and Cloud, who lurks around the edges of things. Barrett is a large and scary-seeming man (who has a _gun_ for an _arm_ , which is terrifying) who turns out to be the most like a marshmallow.

Then there is Marlene.

At first, he thinks she is older than he is, because she seems to have taken lessons from Tifa in being kind and thoughtful, and she is far, far more grown-up than most of the kids he's ever met, before the end of the world, and after it.

But no, she's two years his junior.

He asks her once, about the rumour, but Marlene had no idea what he was talking about.

No one tells Marlene things like that, not when she wears clothing that is mostly new and is always clean. (White is almost impossible to keep clean, in Edge, but Marlene wears it constantly.) No one tells Marlene things because, of everyone, she looks the most untouched by all the damage. She's as human as he is, but she feels like she's not, at the same time.

Oddly enough, it is because of Marlene that he stays.

It would be easy, too easy, to stay because he's being looked after, and his clothes are cleaned and he's fed, and he's off the streets for in what feels like the first time in forever but really hasn't been that long.

(The boy he used to be feels like someone he used to know, sorta, in passing, these days. Denzel doesn't know how to feel about that.)

It would be easy to stay because of all of that and maybe he does a little, because he's tired, but he's also done a lot of growing up himself and there's something about these people that feels too good to be true. Adults die. Children die. He's dying. Either he's going to be left behind again or he'll leave them behind and neither option sounds great to him. Denzel can't make up his mind which he'd prefer.

Marlene gets told nothing and spends time with him even when he's in a bad mood and nearly as withdrawn as Cloud.

So he stays. He doesn't know how to repay her kindnesses, except to make them something borrowed. Something he can pay back, somehow.

Denzel doesn't know what he can do, but he'll think of something. He starts by listening harder to the rumours that people will tell him and not her.

Two nights out of three, he wakes up to the split-second vision of the man that _everyone_ knows, his mako-bright eyes staring down at him inscrutably. It's always gone by the time Denzel's fully awake, and the man never does anything or says anything.

Denzel can't pretend he's not _there_ though.

Not as Geostigma progresses through his body. It leaves him wracked in pain and feverish by turns. Other days he feels nearly healthy again, only tired, so tired, and Denzel tries harder to do as much as he can because he _is_ dying.

He doesn't want to die before he's figured out how to pay back everyone.

"Did you hear?" one of the slum girls asks him one morning. He thinks her name is Maren but isn't sure. "Lottie's brother's got it now too. Three in one family!"

They both shiver.

Maren has it. So does he. They don't talk about _that_.

"Has Lottie's brother seen Him?" Denzel asks.

That just earns him a shrug. "Don't know. If he hasn't, then he will soon."

Denzel can only agree with that. No one knows what Sephiroth wants. Or why he's there. Everyone knows who he is, but what it means is a different story.

Sephiroth was a hero. Some of the children think that he's there to protect them or to guide them, when they finally die.

Sephiroth disappeared and... that's where it got murky, out on the streets. He hadn't died for a long time, but now he was, was for sure, but what had he died from? Some said he was a criminal, some even murmured that he'd murdered the president, others said he was framed and was still a hero, just undercover.

Denzel only mentions Sephiroth once to his new... family, he supposes, though he's not sure if he should call them that yet. They don't answer his questions, but the tense over-reaction as they all try to find a way to not seem to not answer them says more than a straight denial would.

(Later) Finding out that they're the heroes that killed Sephiroth makes everything make more sense.

He knows it's stupid when he does it, when he goes with one of the other kids and gets in the truck with the other children—all of whom have Geostigma too—but Denzel is in pain and tired and now, whenever he blinks, he sees Sephiroth's cool gaze.

So he goes.

He remembers very little of the ride (perhaps he falls asleep during it?) or of the pool of water (he remembers drinking; he remembers being _thirsty_ ) and he remembers nothing of what comes after until he's in the middle of an uproar and there's Tifa and everything is chaos.

Denzel is told to run and he does, after a moment.

Sephiroth chases him.

Not just a flash of mako-eyes every time he blinks now. Not just the sensation of being watched. Denzel runs faster but he's just a normal kid, not some super (dead) SOLDIER. He can't out-run Sephiroth.

They both make it back to Tifa's bar.

Safe, for the moment, and away from the chaos, Denzel still flinches when Sephiroth's hand rests on his shoulder.

"What do you want?" he demands, spinning around to face the- _he doesn't believe in ghosts_ -hallucination.

Sephiroth does not answer him, though his smile is a thing that makes Denzel quake.

He's saved by the phone ringing. And ringing. And it keeps ringing even after he's picked it up and heard the message and left.

 _To the church_ , the phone urges. _To the church_ , the ringing insists.

Denzel loses track of time again, though Sephiroth is with him every step of the way, until (again) Sephiroth has been replaced by Cloud at the church and he's soaking wet and feels _good_.

It's only later (much later) that he understands what happened.

It's only later, after Marlene has finished shouting at him for being an idiot, that Denzel remembers he hasn't figured out a way to pay her back.

He says as much.

Marlene, brilliant and sparkling, plants her hands on her hips and gives him a look that would've done her daddy proud as she says, "Then you'd best stay alive until you do. Ain't no room in the Lifestream for people who don't pay their debts."

Denzel isn't sure if that's true, but Marlene looks so serious that he believes _her_.

"It might take awhile," he warns.

"I can be patient," she snaps. "Now sleep!"

He settles back in his (his!) bed and closes his eyes.

Sephiroth isn't there. He isn't.

It takes Denzel a long time to fall asleep.

He still feels like he's being watched.


End file.
